In certain areas, homes, offices and commercial and factory buildings occasionally are inundated by flood waters. In order to minimize damage from rising flood waters, such structures can utilize flood barriers that are installed in low level doors and windows to seal the openings against inflow of water into the structure as the water level reaches and exceeds the level of the window or door openings. Various barrier systems are available for this purpose, with a wide variety of design features dictated to a considerable extent by the size of the opening to be protected.
For the protection of a relatively wide doorway, for example, against flood waters that may rise to a considerable level above the bottom of the door opening, the barrier system must have considerable structural soundness in order to effectively resist the pressure of water across a wide area and at a relatively high level. One such system that is effective for the purpose has been marketed by Presray Corporation, of Wassaic, N.Y. and consists of a series of horizontally elongated barrier elements (sometimes referred to as “stop logs”) which are assembled one atop the other, extending laterally across the full width of the door opening. The barrier elements, advantageously of C-shaped cross section, are bolted together, so that one element is tightly sealed to the other, and the individual barrier elements are clamped against the front face of the door opening, providing a full perimeter seal and a strong structure to hold back the rising waters.
As can be appreciated, for many locations, flooding is an infrequent event, perhaps an annual experience, or more likely, a situation that occurs only once in a few years. Thus, it is typical and customary that the barrier systems be stored away during normal times, and installed only when there is an immediate threat of inundation. However, when flooding circumstances arise, there is much work to do in order to seal all of the openings available in a typical structure, and speed and efficiency of installation can be extremely important because all of the low level openings must be sealed before the structure can be considered protected from inundation. In this respect, water flowing in through a single unprotected opening, even though others are protected, can inundate the entire structure and cause great damage.